Hydraulic-fill-dam-building machine



Feb. 2., 1926.

J. MrHOwELLs HYDRAULIC [FILL mm surname momma Filed July gs, 1924' W 1 v yfi wzr a 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Inventor.

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, 1,571,446 J. M. HOWELLS nrzmwuc FILL nAm-amtnmc mcnma Fi l ed July 2811354. 5 Sheets-Sheet z nventor.

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Feb. 2 1926. 1,571,446

J. M. HOWELLS v mmiwuc FILL mu surname maxim:

Filed July 28, 1924 I 3'Sheets-Shoot a Inventor:

Patented Feb. 2, 11926.

UNITED STATES JULIUS M. HOWEILS, OF CALIFORNIA.

mnamc-rnm-nm-numnme Application filed July 28, 1924. Serial No. 728,629.

To all whom it may concem:

Be it known that I, JULrUsM. HowELLs, a citizen of the United States, residing at Oakland, county of Alameda, and State of California, have invented new and useful I Improvements in Hydraulic Fill Dam 4 Building Machines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a machine for building hydraulic-fill dams.

Dams in general are classified according I to the materials of which they are built.

They are further classified by the process employed in their building, or by their outstanding structural features. Thus, there areybrush dams, timber dams, earth and rock dams, masonry dams, and steel dams.

Just as there are various types of masonry dams, there is a variety of earth and rock dams. The more important of these are the rock-crib, the rock-fill, the earth-fill, and the hydraulic-fill.

The method of handling material in the hydraulic-fill dam may be traced to the early mining days on the Pacific coast, where new and quite spectacular methods of 'mining auriferous gravels on a large scale were evolved by the bold inventive genius of the American miners.

The hydraulic-fill process soon came to be recognized as the most economical method of moving earth, sand, and loose rock on a large scale, as well as the most-positive and satisfactory means of compacting it in.

a solid immovable mass.

By the skillful direction of the water by Y which the material is conveyed, the disintegrated materials are assorted, rearranged,

" and deposited where needed to perform the required functions of stability and watertightness in the dam,'thus reversing the destructive process of mining bysaving, m

Stead of wastingthe debris, and converting 'thesame into great serviceable structures.

ceed 100 feetin height. The principles involved when utilizing water of varying velocities for loosening, conveying, assort-- ing, distributing, depositing, and consolidating-the materials 'haveibeen more care;

fully studied and scientifically employed in i the design and construction or higher, and

' more important dams. These-principles are adaptable to the building of dams of almost any desirable height,provided suitable ma Hydraulic-Fill Dam; committee follows:

The first hydraulic-fill'dams did not exearth dams. In view of the increasing size,

stituted a hydraulic-fill dam, at a recent meeting of the San Francisco section of the American Society of Civil Engineers, 9. com mittee was appointed to formulate and present to the section a definition of the term The report of that Definition of a. hydraulic-fill dam.

veyed and deposited by running water and constituting the outer portions of the dam, to secure stability; and the finest and most water-tight material deposited under stand ing water and constituting the central portion, insuring Water-tightness.v v

Whenever an appreciable part of a dam is built by the dry-fill method and a part by the hydraulic method, the structure. is'no. longer to be classed as a hydraulic-fill dam,

but is a combination structurea loose rock dam with hydraulic-fill core, a dry-fill earth dam with hydraulic-fill core, etc, as the case I 95 may be. e

The first hydraulic-fill dam was built in,

San Diego County, California, in 1895.

These earlier and smaller hydraulic-fill dams were built far cheaper than any types of.

responsibility, and cost of such dams, the need for'a device, sufliciently. applicable tocommon local conditions as well as those involved in, up-todate hydraulic-fill practice was appreciated by the inventor and led to the development of the hydraulic-fill dam building machine; 'What is believed accomplished by; this design, is a practical elimination of those uncertain labor factors the coarsest, most gritty, and porous con- Tyler, Texas, in 1894, and the second in to be:

which are responsible for the unnecessarily high cost of placin the material composing almost the total bo y of the structure.

. The uncertain labor items which are standardized by this device are four in number and will be here discussed. First, the shifting or moving of the material-carrying flumes, pipes or other sluice? 1 i build ng machine.

ways with the gain in elevation of the dam. At present, these sluice-ways are earned on many trestle bents of dangerous heights made necessary by the demands of sluice ades. It is uncommon to make one trestle ocation sufiice for the full height of dam. many as twentytrestles have been built on one dam during the progress of its erection. Not only is there unnecessary cost by this frequent trestle building, but chutes must be resorted to in order to properly distribute the material from av fixed trestle lpcation to the constantly, moving top of am. V In the h draulic-fill dambuilding machine, the s uice pipe is'carried on a slidi'ng trestle, advanced by the necessities of 'ot er fimctions of the machine at a rate to deposit the material at the most desirable point on the interior slopes of the dam. Only the buildin of one trestle is required for each slope 0% the dam and this trestle is alow, well braced structure, safe from destruction by winds or snows which often I have destroyed high sluice-way trestles.

small cost. At present, these levees are Second, the maintenance of levees at the top of the side slopes is an item ofnoraised by shovelling. by hand, or by teams .and scrapers-or in a fewcases by mechanical means.

40 provides-a sort of movin against whichthe material is properly directed and automatically, :the peak of the v r dump forms the levee.

The hydraulic-fill dam building machine shear board -Third, the alignment and grading of the dam face is' now accomplished byhand grading-with the use, of templates necessitating than aframeconstructed of timber or'lik'e .material throughout. The frame is triangu- .lar in cross-section and consists of'a series of automaticall ah'gnsand. ades as it is adi y gr $111 or base plates 4 which are supported and frequent checking by theengineers v The hydraulic-fill dam buildin'gfmachine vanced. The-:form of the dam' is accurately established by the proper laying of its skid-waysor tracks which theliengineer with boulders is now done in a mostlaborie 7 1y thus savin aligns'but once. Fourth, the riprapping of the dams' faceous fashion. Quarries are-often opened to, ield necessary rock when usually withinthe hydraulic-fillitself suitable rock. available;

Theihydraulic fill dam building machine ripraps both faces of the dam, automaticalabout three-fourths. of the cost of such r prapping.

' Fig. Us a perspectivefiviewof a hydrauhcposition By referring to Fig. 1-, it will be noted that a hydraulic-fill, dam consists of a central core portion A and two outer -stability sections such as indicated at BB. The stability sections are composed of boulders, gravel, sand or other similar material, while the core .orcentral portion is composed of fine sand and clay or similar materials which are practically impervious to water. The coarsest material, such as large boulders, rocks, etc., isdeposited towards the outer faces or slopes 2 and 3 of the dam, while the smaller rock, boulders, gravel, sand, etc., are deposited by the flow action of the water towards the center portion, and the fines or core material are finally, deposited in quiet water or pool maintained in the'center ofthe dam. The fill material is usually I series of base or track timbers such as indicated at 3. These are set to conform with the intended slope or grade ofthe dam when the structure is started and the machine as a whole is movable upwardly on the sup-- port thus provided, asthe elevation of the dam increases.

The machine extends substantially from end to endof. the dam and while it may be constructed in sections of suitable length,-

ture; The machine is nothingmore or less it ishere illustrated as one integral struc-v A v slidably mounted on the base timbers 3. The 4 of upright vertically disposed timbers'5 and '6, a series of'horiz'ontal timbers 7,-and laterally and longitudinally disposed bracing timbers 8 and9; The frame of the machine is thus braced both laterally and longitu=1 dinally and a rigid structure is in this manner secured throughout. A shear plate extending from end to end of the machine is formed by securing a series of planks 1O to the brace timbers- 8. A ballast-carrying platform 11 is formed by securmg planks frame-work furthermore consists of a series to the, sill members 4 and the uprights 5. A

. plank walklZ is obtained by securing planks to the horizontal timbers 7 and walks on .each side of the pipe line C are also provided by placing planks 13 and 14 on each side of the stringers. The pipe line is supported on cross-timbers secured in the uprights 6, and means are employed for extending or shortening the pi e line as desired. This is best illustrated in Fig. 3. The pipe line is, of course, constructed of sections which may be readily coupled in any convenient manner. The pipe lengths not in use are supported at one end by the crosstimbers 15 and the opposite end of each pipe length is held in a raised position by lockpins 16 extending through perforations vformed .in the uprights 6.

If the end of the pipe line from which the material is discharging reaches the point indicated at 17, and it is desired to extend the pipe line by one length, it is only necessary to remove the pin 16 so that the elevated end of the pipe shown in dotted lines at 18 may be lowered to align with the end of the pipe 17 This is readily accomplished and when pipe 18 is lowered by removing the pin 16, it is a simple matter to couple the pipe sections 17 and 18 as desired. The pipe line may thus be extended orshortened as desired without interruption to the material which is being delivered. Y

-The frame or machine supporting the pipe I line, the shear plate, the plank walks, the

. These jacks align with the sill plates 4 and they are interposed between the-lower ends of the sill plates and spikes or like devices such as shown at 20. The screw-jacks secure the main frame'in position and by gradually turning each screw-jack, the frame as a whole may be advanced or shifted upwardly on the slope. i

For the purpose of clearly illustrating the operation of the machine, it will be sup posed that the dam during its construction has reached the elevation shown in Fig. 1

and that the boulders, rock g'ravel, sand, lnud, etc., are being deposited from theend of the pipe line C. If this is the case, segregation of the material is obtained vby the wash action of the water, and an inner slope is maintained on the crest of the dam to permit thefiner materials to be carried to the center or core portion, where they are deposited in still water. The coarser materials settle out of the flowing water and are thus deposited near the outer edge or slope of thedam, while the finer materials travel inwardly with the flowing water. The'larger rocks and pebbles are deposited towards the outer face, while the still larger boulders and rocks are deposited on the very face by means of a grizzly such as shown at 25. A number of these grizzlies may be employed or a single grizzly may be advanced along the frame as the point of pipe line discharge is adianced, the grizzly being hung by means of chains or the like so that it may be swung fromv side to side to uniformly deposit the boulders. .Th e grizzly discharges the boulders against the shear face or head and the boulders thus roll down the shear face so that they will be deposited on the very slope or face of the dam. The shear face or. edge at the time smooths off the face of the dam when the frame as a whole is shifted upwardly on the slope, and it can thus be seen that a uniform surface equal to the riprapsurface is obtained without the use of templates and constant checking on the part of the engineers.

The pipe sections are connected as the work advances and until material to a considerable height has been distributed along the entire face of the dam. The entire machine is then shifted upwardly a predetermined distance and the pipe sections are disconnected one by one as the material is again being deposited. In other words the material is first deposited at one end of the dam and thepipe line is so connected that its length gradually increases until it reaches the opposite end. The frame is then shifted upwardly and the operation is reversed as the pipe sections are disconnected one by one. The work is in this manner continued until the opposite end of the dam is reached,

when the frame is'again advanced, this oper-.

ation being continued until the desired height or orest is reached. In the operation of the machine, instead of definite steps of advancement upwardly on the slope of the dam, as dewribed above, it may be constantly and gradually advanced at an average rate, consistent with the progress of the dam structure; p r

The drawings merely illustrate one maiichine, but it is obvious that two machines (vivill be employed, one on I each face of the 7 am.

A machine constructed and operated as here shown should prove a. great labor saving device, as it reducesthe work on the part of theiengineers; it insures a uniformi level and slope without using templates, etc,; it does away with the necessity of building and tearing down numerous trestle bents for carrying'the flumesor pi Y mits shortening or lengthemng of the pipe. line with a amount 0 labor; it

does away with the extra operation of riprapping the faces of the dam; it insures proper segregation and deposition of material; it insures uniform work, and it similarly reduces time and structural cost to a minimum. a

While certain features of the present invention, are more or less specifically illustrated, I wish it understood that various changes in form and proportion may be resorted to Within the-scope of the appended claims. I similarly wish it understood that the materials and finish of the several parts employed may be such as the experience and udgment of the manufacturermay dictate or various uses may demand.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters dams comprising a grade-establishing sup port disposed transversely of the dam and parallel with one slope face thereof, a superstructure mounted thereon and movable transversely of the dam, means carried by said. structure for delivering material for the construction of the dam, means carried said structure for segregating and depos 1t1ng the material at points longitudinally of the dam, and a shear plate carried by slaid structure to smooth the face of the am; i y. Y 3. A machine-forbuilding hydraulic-fill dams, comprising a-grade-establishing support disposed transversely of the dam and parallel with one slope face thereof, a superstructure mounted thereon, means carried by 'said structure for delivering material for the constructionof the dam, a shear .plate carried b the super-structure to smooth the face offl't e dam, and means for imparting movement to the structure upwardly on the grade support.

4. A mach'ne for building hydraulic-fill dams, comprising a grade-establishing suport, a super-frame mounted thereon, a pipe ine carried by the said frame adapted to deliver material for construction of the dam, and a grizzly carriedby the super-structure for segregating and depositing material dischargmg from the pipe line.

5. A machine for building h draulic-fill dams, comprising a grade-est'ab ishing support, a super-frame mounted thereon, a pi e ine carried b the said frame adapted to eliver materia for construction of the dam, a

grizzly carried by the super-structure for segregating and depositing material d1scharging from the pipe line, and a shear plate on the frame against which the grizzly discharges, said shear plate extending longitudinally of the frame and the dam.

6. A machine for building hydraulic-fill dams, comprising a-grade-establishing support, a'super-frame mounted thereon, a pipe line carried by the said frame adapted to deliver material for construction of the dam, a grizzly carried b the super-structure for segregating and epositing material d1scharging from the pipe line, ashear plate on the frame against whicll the grizzly discharges, said shear plate extending longitudinally of the frame and the dam, a series of stop members secured to the grade-establishing support, and screw-jacks interposed between said stop members and the frame whereb movement may be imparted to the'frame in an upward direction on the grade-establishing support.

- JULIUS M. HOWELLS. 

